


responsibility (it's a double edged sword)

by catsinthetardis



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Dad!Reaper, Gen, Pairings If You Squint, blood/gore, but support them anyway, i don't know where this came from, i mean this isn't one, minor description of violence, pretty gen, support healthy family relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-28
Updated: 2016-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-02 21:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8683240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsinthetardis/pseuds/catsinthetardis
Summary: A oneshot response to AsheRhyder's fabulous fic Six Seconds (Don't Blink). Reaper learns about McCree's use of an automatic with DeadEye.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AsheRhyder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsheRhyder/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Six Seconds (Don't Blink)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8366557) by [AsheRhyder](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsheRhyder/pseuds/AsheRhyder). 



“Sombra.” Reaper’s voice carried in the Talon base. Spinning around on her chair, Sombra glanced at the shadowy figure in the doorway.

 

“What's up?” Sombra gave the wraith her full attention as he drifted into the room. Nano clusters whipped around him, more agitated than usual. Seems like he hadn’t eaten in a while, then.

 

“Have you reviewed the film from the last op? The Overwatch agents were cornered and I didn’t hear talk of dragons again. Who took out the grunts?”

 

Sombra turned back to her monitors, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “Oh yeah, I got it. Big surprise, boss.”

 

Reaper made an impatient sound that sounded more like static than a vocalization. Sombra’s smug tone was rubbing him the wrong way. “Is there a new member?”

 

Laughing quietly, Sombra pulled up the footage from the firefight, fingers dancing in the air. “No. It was the _vaquero_ , McCree. Seems like he’s given up on the whole six shots thing.”

 

Reaper pulled back slightly. The footage playing on the customized screens was clear as could be. Ziegler unconscious, the archer injured, Song without her mech, and Reinhardt’s shield faltering. McCree began arguing with Soldier: 76 about something and then hefted the older man’s pulse rifle, standing stock still. A split second after Reinhardt’s shield fell, the cowboy unleashed his own attack. Time slowed to a crawl as McCree fired. Twenty-four perfect shots right between the eyes. Reaper knew the clip held twenty-five.

 

Sombra's commentary continued. “Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. McCree’s never used an automatic before. It seems to be effective.” Quite the understatement. Sombra’s sarcastic humor would normally make Reaper crack a smile under his mask, but this time, he was numb. The hollowness in Reaper’s chest seemed to expand as he watched McCree break down in the field, yelling about staring death in the face. _Jack_. Jack had broken the promise Gabriel Reyes had made to a terrified child he’d first met with blood pouring down his face and the most devastated look Gabriel had ever seen that wasn’t on someone dead already. _Never more than six_. Reaper didn’t care about the Talon agents, they were expendable. But Jesse McCree was not.

 

Making sure he could get in and get back out of the Watchpoint took a week that Reaper wasn’t sure he had. But he needed to be sure that he wouldn’t end up captured, or Sombra would never let him hear the end of it. Reaper schemed until he had one method of egress that took into account any combination of operatives that could possibly be there. Not going on any missions for a week left him starving, fuzzy about the edges like a mirage, but he knew that he’d still be a match for anything this fool’s Overwatch could throw at him.

 

Being an asset and not a full Talon member meant Reaper could leave whenever he pleased. Misting from his room, Reaper made one last check of the data Sombra had forwarded at his request. Both McCree and Morrison would be at the Watchpoint, better yet without Ziegler or Amari, giving him the perfect window.

 

…………………………

 

The alarms of Watchpoint: Milan blared gratingly against Jesse’s ears. He glanced at Hanzo and Soldier: 76 before leading the sprint to the commons. He wasn’t expecting a ghost.

 

Reaper stood in the center of the room, half-disintegrated. He was in the middle of a silent standoff with Hana and Lucio, who were sitting together on the couch, staring at Reaper instead of their characters falling off Rainbow Road. But Reaper wasn’t attacking, or even paying close attention to the two pop icons. As the trio came barrelling through the doorway, Reaper turned to face Morrison. The man snarled and brought up his pulse rifle, but before he could aim it, Reaper moved with blinding speed, dissolving and reforming in front of Morrison to slam him bodily into the nearest wall. His rifle clattered to the floor, but Morrison kept thrashing against the pin. The position gave Jesse a clear shot, but with how close Reaper’s talons were to Jack’s head he couldn’t risk it. There was no devil hanging over the wraith’s shoulder. Hanzo, Hana, and Lucio all seemed to be thinking along the same lines. 

 

Reaper gathered the struggling soldier’s wrists in one hand and pinned them to the wall above his head while the other reached for his owl-like mask. The angle a made it impossible for any of the four other occupants of the room see, but as Reaper’s hand pulled away with the mask, Jesse watched Morrison slump against the wall. His knees looked unsteady. Jesse had never seen the former Strike-Commander give up a fight so quickly.

 

“ _G-_ ” Reaper slammed Jack’s wrists into the wall again. Jesse heard something _crunch_ , and Jack’s exclamation was lost in a hiss of pain. Reaper’s hooded head inclined closer to Jack’s face. In an undertone barely audible to McCree, he snarled out a warning.

 

“Don’t make me a _liar_ , Jack.” As he pulled away, Jack seemed to follow the motion with his own body. Instead of letting the soldier lean on him, Reaper pushed him back, releasing his hold on Jack's wrists. Jack sank to the floor, back dragging on the wall, pulse rifle forgotten on the floor between them. Reaper placed his mask back over his face and turned to face McCree.

 

“ _Hijo_. He pulls this shit again, come find me.”

 

Jesse’s hold on Peacekeeper wavered slightly, the only indicator of Jesse's shock. _Gabriel_. A noise caught in his throat, choked off. It might have been a sob. Reaper’s form disappeared and reappeared again, closer to Hanzo this time.

 

McCree whirled around, pointing accusingly at Reaper. “We thought you were _dead_.”

 

Reaper’s mask stared placidly back. “I _am_ dead.”

 

“Awfully spry for a dead man, Reyes.”

 

“I try.” Jesse took a step closer to his former mentor, still half in shock. Nobody else in the room made a sound. Reaper’s ever-present cloud met Jesse halfway, an embrace and a buffer all at once. Jesse had a feeling that Reaper might be smiling under his mask.

 

Turning away, Reaper faced Hanzo. “Keep an eye on this idiot, yeah?” Hanzo nodded stiffly, unused to being addressed by the monstrous form except on the battlefield taunting him. Suddenly, all the lights shut off. Jesse hadn’t realized the alarms had still been going until their abrupt stop. Jesse felt something like a stiff breeze as Reaper shadow-stepped away, and then Morrison lurched off the wall with a yell.

 

“No!” But Gabriel was already gone, and Jack almost collided with Lucio as he lunged at the disappearing man. Jack curled in on himself again as McCree stood silently, stunned by the revelation that Gabriel Reyes was their most feared opponent. Hanzo was the first person to collect himself, and addressed Hana and Lucio.

 

“Go turn the lights back on. I doubt Reaper has lingered.” Hana and Lucio almost tripped over each other fleeing the room, shaken by the surprise visit. Jesse took another moment to compose himself before cautiously approaching Jack’s prone form on the floor.

 

“Heya, Morrison. Time to geddup, partner.” No response. Jesse reached out tentatively to shake the man’s shoulder. “Jack? Darlin’ he’s gone now.”

 

Morrison slowly unfolded, as though moving too fast would break him. “Jesse...I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pressured you into using my rifle.”

 

Jesse chuckled. “If usin’ your rifle was all it took to learn who Reaper is, I should have done it a long time ago. I already forgave ya, Jack.”

 

Jack shook his head. “It wasn’t my place to break Gabe’s promise to you.”

 

“Well we’re all still alive to argue about it, so I think it was worth it partner.”

 

Jack’s hand came up to remove his visor, revealing a soft smile. “Sure, Jesse.”

 

Jesse broke into a broad grin. “That’s the spirit. And now we have a new mission.”

 

Hanzo made a noise of agreement from his spot at Jesse’s side. “Nn, that’s right. It is time for Gabriel Reyes to come back to Overwatch.”

**Author's Note:**

> honestly AsheRhyder's fic is amazing. go read it immediately. i can't say this enough


End file.
